Dawn's Early Light (Williamsburg Novels, #1)

Blurb

Elswyth Thane is best-known for her Williamsburg series seven novels published between 1943 and 1957 that follow several generations of two families from the American Revolution to World War II Dawns Early Light is the first novel in the series In it colonial Williamsburg comes alive Thane centers her novel around four major characters the aristrocratic St John Sprague who becomes George Washingtons aide Regina Greensleeves a Virginia beauty spoilt by a season in London Julian Day a young schoolmaster who arrives from England on the eve of the war and thought of himself as a Tory and Tibby Mawes one of his less fortunate pupils saddled with an alcoholic father and an indigent mother But we also see Washington Jefferson Lafayette Greene Patrick Henry Francis Marion and the rest of that brilliant galaxy not as historical figures but as men and women We see de Kalbs gallant death under a cavalry charge at Camden We penetrate Marions swamp-encircled stronghold on the Peedee We watch the cat-and-mouse game between Cornwallis and Lafayette Dawns Early Light is the human story behind our first war for liberty and of the men and women loving and laughing through it to the dawn of a better world